Facility maintenance is no longer considered just an overhead expense, and it plays an important role in a company's success. The more an enterprise can optimize and maintain its assets, the more it can compete in the areas of cost and quality.
One of the important factors in maintaining a successfully operating facility is work scheduling. Prior to the introduction of computerized work scheduling systems, scheduling of work was performed manually. The manual scheduling process involved determining what work has to be performed and the time, materials and resources, such as workers and tools required to perform it, as well as information which influenced the schedule, such as the priority associated with the work orders. The frequency with which the scheduling process had to be performed along many other factors contributed to the development of computerized scheduling systems.
One of such computerized schedule systems is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,391, Fields et al. The Fields' patent relates to a system and method for the creation of staff schedules at remote locations, and takes into account location specific values and historical data, while simultaneously conforming to corporate policy regarding scheduling standards and labor regulations. Another computerized schedule system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,387, Honma et al. The Honma's patent is directed to a building management system. Specifically, the Honma's patent describes a cyclic building maintenance work schedule preparation system that is useful in preparing a schedule table of cyclic work in advance upon sending workers to periodically visit client buildings under a maintenance contract to conduct inspections at the buildings.
In addition to the work scheduling, a maintenance analysis and worker training are also important factors in maintaining a successfully operating facility. One such system is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,823, to Richardson. The Richardson's patent describes a hand-held system that provides work guidance and instruction for carrying out a given task and records maintenance duties without the need for written records and that is carried by a worker.
While the existing systems describe electronic work scheduling and providing instructions to a worker, a need still remains for a dynamic work management system enabling a user interaction with the system.